Sunday, December 19, 2010

Winter Pizza Party

I'm interrupting my recap of Chicago for the more self-serving purpose of blogging my own pizza from a little shindig last weekend-


The only rule of the night was to BYOT (bring your own toppings), resulting in some pretty zany combinations. By the end of the night I had fired eight pizzas in the smoldering depths of what is possibly the world's smallest home oven; three New York-style pies, three "Neapolitan" style, one Sicilian and a gluten-free.


This here's the gluten-free pizza made with Daiya dairy-free "cheese" for the celiac and vegan crowd. No wheat or dairy? I don't know how I'd survive in this world without beer and pizza, but no friend of mine should be left pizza-less regardless of dietary afflictions, so it had to be done. Needless to say, with a consistency resembling Play-Doh, gluten-free dough is the biggest pain in the ass.


New York-style pie. Could have used another 30 seconds under the broiler. Meh.


Next we had a white pie with fresh mozzarella, black olive pate, garlic, artichokes, and arugula. Clearly there were some clever flavor combinators in attendance.


I was pretty stoked on the fact that there were no technical dough-ficulties during the night- every pie built came right back out of the oven well-cooked (more or less).


The demand for meat was in the air, so someone decided throw together a pizza with San Marzano-based sauce, fresh mozz, (pre-oven) arugula, strips of bacon and (half) pineapple. I didn't get a chance to try this so I can't speak for the final outcome.


My pan of Sicilian dough had been rising for a few hours, so it was time to start making power moves on this guy.


Maybe not the best shot, but I was going for an L&B-inspired Sicilian pie with low-moisture mozz, NY-style tomato sauce, heavy sprinkling of grana padano, then half pepperoni and half mushroom.


Next up on the list is my pride and joy, the eponymous Pizza Commander I created while at Paulie Gee's- fior di latte, (pre-oven) arugula, cherry tomatoes, EVOO, shaved Parmesan and lemon juice.


I was pretty stoked on this pie; it turned out smashing.


I barely remember what went on this pizza, nor how many beers in I was at this point. I'm 90% it was the following: fior di latte, goat cheese, sliced pears lightly caramelized in Mike's Hot Honey, then topped with arugula fresh out of the oven.


No pizza party is complete without a desert pizza- sliced apples, honey, cinnamon, nutella and peanut butter. Peanut butter? Yeah I know, but it worked, so don't even.


Wash it all down with some limoncello digestif from a good friend,


Over and out.

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